Sinéad under the hammer for 15k (Thursday 24 February 2005 #1)
compiled by Claire Flannery
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Jim Fitzpatrick: Strange Days, 2003, oil on canvas,122 by 183cm; image held here |
Following the much-reported sale of Lucien Freud's nude portrait of model Kate Moss for the sum of £3.9 million earlier this month, yet another celeb-portrait has come under the hammer. Jim Fitzpatrick's nude portrait of Sinéad O'Connor was bought Tuesday night for 15,000 euro at Whyte's latest auction in Dublin. The portrait, entitled Strange days , was originally commissioned by an unnamed Dublin nightclub, yet it was O'Connor herself who bought the work at that time. Whether this was due to the nightclub's rejecting the work or due to O'Connor wanting the painting for herself is not known.
Although the circumstances surrounding the provenance are unclear, O'Connor's motives for selling the work at this timely moment are arguably transparent. Controversial to the point of self-parody, O'Connor has always been keenly aware of the importance of the staying within the public eye. Following her announced retirement from the music industry in 2003, last September O'Connor took out a full page advertisement in the Irish Examiner to demand her privacy (!). The latest news is that O'Connor is back, with two new albums due for launch this year, and the sale of her portrait is perhaps the beginning of her promotional campaign.
Fitzpatrick is best known for having designed the (in)famous Che Guevara image - widely reproduced on posters, t-shirts and other revolutionary paraphernalia - in 1968. Fitzpatrick is very prolific and his mythical celtic graphic style is instantly recognizable. Though many see Fitzpatrick as an "excellent modern illustrator," and though his work is supposedly very influential, his stylistic designs are certainly not a universal hit. An anecdote recounted by the artist himself (on his official website) tells of how, at a party years ago, Fitzpatrick was informed of the extent of his influence on hopeful candidates for the National College of Art and Design by a former president of the College. When Fitzpatrick asked "what do you do with them all?" he was informed, "Oh, we just fuck them all out.".
So what of this recent work by Fitzpatrick: did the portrait of O'Connor deservedly fetch such a high price? In Whyte's catalogue it was projected that the work would fetch at least 15,000 euro, and possibly 20,000 euro. So the realised price came as no big surprise. The painting is overtly based on Velázquez's Rokeby Venus, 1647-1651, with various alterations such as the substitution of a Celtic comic-style green dragon for Velázquez's Cupid, who holds up the mirror to Venus. In the background is a contemporary view of Dublin. These elements are unified by Fitzpatrick's idiosyncratic graphic style.
Selling his work online, Fitzpatrick charges as much as $30,000 for certain pieces, such as Boanne (Newgrange) , a work dating back to 1996. It is not known who the buyer of Strange days was or whether he/she is particularly a fan of Fitzpatrick's work or that of O'Connor.
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Jim Fitzpatrick: Boanne (Newgrange) , 1996, size A0; image held here |
Fitzpatrick has long been a friend of O'Connor. The two friends must certainly be in concurrence in their rejection of the mainstream, in terms of their respective art. O'Connor recently said in an interview with Hotpress , adding to her tiresome litany of shocking statements, that mainstream music "has all the sincerity of a whore's kiss."
As a post scriptum it is worth noting that, far from being the star of the auction, the portrait of O'Connor was outshone by Wounded pigeon by Louis Le Brocquy, a work dating from 1984, and by Paul Henry's Cottage's on Killary Bay, which exceeded the projected price of 80,000 euro, selling for 87,000 euro. There were some surprises at the auction, with John Kingerlee's On the Beara Peninsula fetching 36,000 euro, triple the expected selling price.
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